Businesses cling on as West Seattle Bridge nears final repair stage

SEATTLE — The Seattle Department of Transportation announced Thursday that the final phase of repairs for the West Seattle Bridge will begin in November. It added the repairs can’t happen soon enough.

Some said the challenges have only got worse since the bridge shut down. Dan Austin is the owner of Press and Peel, a pizza restaurant in West Seattle. He’s also the board president of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

Austin said, at first, the biggest impact of the bridge closure was that people didn’t want to drive the detour and come to West Seattle for dinner. That effect is still there, but now there’s another issue — major challenges with labor and supply shortages that are deeply exacerbated by the bridge closure.

“It’s incredibly challenging to operate right now,” Austin said. “It’s a mad scramble to get even basic ingredients in.”

The West Seattle Bridge shut down on the same day Washington state went into lockdown on March 23. But while the state has reopened, the bridge remains closed.

Almost everyone is affected by the shortages, but with the high bridge closed and the lower bridge limited even for some deliveries, the impact is even more significant for West Seattle businesses.

“There has been driver shortages with a lot of our warehouse vendors that deliver product, so there’s been issues where they just cut West Seattle out of the equation,” Austin said.

Now according to SDOT, the end is in sight. The final stage of work and repairs will soon begin on the West Seattle Bridge in November.

“We are on schedule and on budget — exactly as we expected. We are in really good shape,” said Heather Marx, director of the West Seattle Bridge safety program for SDOT.

The bridge was suddenly shut down in March 2020 after inspectors discovered cracks in the bridge were quickly accelerating.

SDOT stated that steel post-tensioning cables inside the concrete of the bridge were built to the standard of the late 70s and early 80s. But with modern use, those cables started stretching, or “creeping.” That shifted the weight distribution on the bridge, and parts of the bridge started cracking.

Climb down two ladders inside the bridge, and you can see all the cracks marked on the walls and bridge floor. SDOT stated inspectors were so alarmed by the acceleration in cracking that they feared the cracks would link up and cause total structural collapse.

Now the bridge has since been stabilized. Crews have installed new post-tensioning steel cables inside and “carbon fiber reinforced polymer” wrapping on the outside.

“We are checking those critical sections, but the cracking has virtually come to a halt,” said Matt Donahue, director of roadway structures with SDOT.

The next step of the repair work is to add even more steel cables and carbon fiber so that it can handle millions of pounds of traffic.

SDOT stated the bridge is set to reopen by mid-2022.

“I really hope ‘mid’ means June and not July. Every one of those months is critical to us,” Austin said. He said Peel and Press has managed to break even the last 18 months, but they are one of the lucky ones.

“I know it’s wishful thinking to see a major infrastructure project come in early but make it happen, SDOT, please,” Austin said.

The high bridge was the city’s most used bridge, with an average of over 100,000 vehicles driving over it every day.

The total cost for everything bridge-related — including the stabilizing, traffic mitigation and repairs — will cost about $175 million. The repair work itself will cost about $55 million.

When completed, the work will restore the bridge to what the original life span of the bridge should have been, which equates to nearly 40 more years of use.

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